Materials may be secured together using many different methods including, for example, hot clinching and friction stir spot welding. Hot clinching techniques often result in the thermal expansion of the materials, while friction stir spot welding often results in brittle phase formation when joining different materials (e.g., aluminum and magnesium). Other clinching techniques may require the precise alignment of the clinching tool with particular features of the materials to be clinched and/or may result in the splitting or cracking of the clinch button.